Asking the Wrong Question, 2012

Most voters continue to believe the government bailouts were a bad idea, but at the same time concern that the government won’t do enough in response to the bad economy has reached its highest level in over three years of regular surveying.


Just 39% of Likely U.S. Voters worry more that the federal government will do too much in reacting to current economic problems. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey shows that 50% now are more worried that the government will not do enough, up three points from last month. Eleven percent (11%) are not sure.  Rasmussen Reports, December 19th, 2011

Pollsters really can influence the accounting of public opinion by how they phrase a question. For example, a poll on "do you approve of Herman Cain's harassment and womanizing ways" is designed to slice and dice Herman Cain, by linking him to behavior that people certainly do not like. It's the old unanswerable question: "Have you stopped beating your wife?". Pollsters can certainly anticipate the impact of public opinion questions, and the better outfits are careful to ask neutral questions.
 
Normally I find Rasmussen's polls to be reasonably well formed, and they usually do ask the right questions. In the case of the most recent poll, where 50% of the people "don't believe that government will do enough" to fix the bad economy, I think Rasmussen missed the mark. What the results don't parse very well is: of the 50% who answer this way, how many would prefer that the government act differently. Perhaps the message is for the government to undo much of what they have done to cause the problem: e.g.,  by eliminating regulations like wage controls, unemployment extensions, and other productivity dis-incentives. It's certainly the only useful tool under the government's control, and I think, perhaps a large number of people are thinking that that is the thing that government could and should do.
 
The Rasmussen stats can be mis-read by politicians that the people want government to do something. Of the two somethings government can do, one is right and one is wrong, and the politicians will doubtless  use this kind of data to justify their wrong action.
 
I'd like to see the pollster ask a more relavent multiple choice question.
 
Should government:
a)  Improve the economy by reducing disincentives to work, and barriers to hiring.
b)  do Nothing
c)  do More of what they are doing now.
 
The results would be far more revealing about the will of the people, and not give politicians more tools for our continued destruction.